,----[ Quote ]
| The extremely pernicious Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) continues
| to move forward. Here's what the anachronistic back-slapping club known as
| the G8 has to say on the subject:
|
| We encourage the acceleration of negotiations to establish a new
| international legal framework, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
| (ACTA), and seek to complete the negotiation by the end of this year.
|
|
| Remember, this is an agreement that has been drawn up behind closed doors,
| with input from the industries that depend on intellectual monopolies, and
| zero input from the rest of us. Democracy? Who needs it?
`----

More suit-wearing criminals passing their Christmas wishlist as a law.

Recent:

Digital copyright: it's all wrong

,----[ Quote ]
| The ACTA draft is a scary document. If a treaty based on its provisions were
| adopted, it would enable any border guard, in any treaty country, to check
| any electronic device for any content that they suspect infringes copyright
| laws. They need no proof, only suspicion.
|
| They would be able to seize any device - laptop, iPod, DVD recorder, mobile
| phone, etc - and confiscate it or destroy anything on it, merely on
| suspicion. On the spot, no lawyers, no right of appeal, no nothing.
`----

Embattled ACTA Negotiations Next Week In Geneva; US Sees Signing This Year

,----[ Quote ]
| Criticism from NGOs
|
| Canadian law expert David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa’s
| Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic, told the Ottawa Citizen
| that the discussion paper was very close to a potential Christmas wish-list
| by Hollywood companies.
|
| Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), in an earlier statement filed to USTR,
| warned against a lack in differentiation and clearness of core terms, like
| counterfeiting, infringement or piracy. “Is Microsoft a “pirate” for
| insisting on the right to continue to infringe the z4 patents in order to use
| an infringing DRM technology to protect Microsoft software itself from
| infringement by unauthorised uses?” KEI asked in its statement.
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is developing a new technology that could force mobiles into silent
| mode, or even prevent calls from being made.
|
| [...]
|
| Phone jammers, which work in small spaces, are banned in the UK and come with
| a hefty fine for use.
`----

,----[ Quote ]
| That's how the legal system in New Zealand judged it. Refusing to take down
| the website could send you to jail indefinitely, because refusing to comply
| with such a court order is probably as offending as a serial murder, right?
`----